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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to revolving doors used in building and construction, as is well known in the prior art. In particular, it relates to an emergency safety release for a revolving door
2. Description of Related Art
Revolving doors are well known in the prior art for providing ingress and egress to buildings. They have many advantages over standard swinging doors, including an airlock effect that minimizes loss of heated/cooled air from the building, inherent control of pedestrian flow through the doorway, and inherent security aspects. The major drawback of revolving doors is the potential for the door becoming blocked in an emergency situation where people rush to the door and push the door at both sides, thereby blocking its rotation and completely obstructing movement through the revolving door. Many lives have been lost in these panic conditions. In response, building codes typically have recognized this danger and now require that standard swinging doors be disposed adjacent to the revolving door to provide emergency ingress or egress. Unfortunately, the existence of these swinging doors in proximity to the revolving door diminishes all of the advantages of revolving doors noted above.
One approach to solving this problem in the prior art provides xe2x80x9cbreakawayxe2x80x9d hinges for mounting the doors to their supporting revolving door shaft. In the panic situation described above, forceful pushing on the doors of the revolving unit cause the hinges to yield so that the doors pivot on the shaft mounts. The doors thereby move to open at least some space through the unit. However, the continued presence of the door shaft and the doors hung thereon acts to constrict the emergency opening and does not promote quick egress through the door.
The present invention generally comprises an emergency exit revolving door apparatus that provides unobstructed passage in the event of an emergency escape situation.
The apparatus of the invention includes a revolving door assembly that is generally comprised of a ceiling panel, a floor panel, and a pair of curved vertical panels extending therebetween to form a rigid, conjoint assembly. A door shaft extends from the floor disk to ceiling disk and is spaced generally equidistantly between the curved vertical panels. A plurality of door panels are secured to the door shaft in planes that extend radially outwardly and are angularly spaced in a generally equiangular relationship. The number and size of the door panels and their angular spacing may conform to any of the standards known in the prior art and approved for building codes. The assembly is disposed in a door opening of a building, and is sealed therein to provide a revolving door closure very similar in function and appearance to those known in the prior art. However, the assembly is not structurally tied to the building, so that limited translational movement of the door assembly is permitted, as described below.
The door shaft extends upwardly from a movable support such as a dolly. The dolly is disposed within a channel that is inset in the floor or sidewalk and extending outwardly from the exterior of the door opening of the building. The dolly is provided with wheels or other means for permitting the dolly to translate along the channel. The open slot of the channel is covered by one or more frangible or flexible panels that may be colored or otherwise treated either to blend in with the surrounding floor or sidewalk surface, or to be visually prominent to prevent any step hazard. The dolly is also provided with a tooth-like lug protrusion extending upwardly therefrom and dimensioned to either remove, break, or otherwise clear the panels covering the open slot of the channel as the door assembly translates along the channel.
In normal operation the door assembly is sealed and removably secured in the door opening of the building. In an emergency situation, if a throng of people rush to the revolving door and push outwardly on it with sufficient force, the seal around the door opening will break away, and the door assembly will be driven outwardly by the force. The dolly will translate along the channel, as the slot cover is cleared by the protrusion, so that the entire revolving door assembly translates outwardly from the door opening of the building. The channel is sufficiently long to enable the entire revolving door assembly to translate sufficiently outwardly to clear the door opening and enable a substantially unobstructed emergency exit path.
The forces required to release the door seals and move the revolving door assembly along the channel are easily determined by mechanical engineering considerations, so that the door assembly may not be translated by everyday usage, nor by air pressure differences between the ambient pressure and the interior pressure of the building. Likewise, the revolving door assembly may be latched or anchored to the building whenever it is desired to close the door and secure it.